Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Long time no blog

Ok, just a week, but I managed to blog almost every day until last week. Anyway, I'm back.Oscar is up in the Great White North, well, Gaylord, not REALLY far north but colder and snowier.He's hunting a wild ruminant a.k.a. the White Tailed Deer. He'll be happy if he gets one, we love venison, but he will also be happy just to have spent time sitting quietly and watching.There are a lot of critters up on my Dad's land to keep him amused. When he was turkey hunting this past Spring he got a chickadee to hop almost into his blind. He and Dad have a lot in common that way.He's due home on Friday evening.I have been spending time knitting (of course) and watching my Stargate DVDs. I'm keeping my energy for taking care of our domesticated critters, and myself. I also have a huge stack of books to read, some by J.D. Robb, some by Kim Harrison and a few other authors, but I haven't started those yet. I'm currently re-reading Harry Potter as my bedtime books.

The following may be TMI for some folks. It's medical stuff:My fever is alive and well, and after the most recent run of three months and counting of almost daily elevated temperatures, my Doc took a white blood cell count; it was still too high. I guess she thinks enough is enough, because I'm scheduled to go in for an Indium Scan. (to see if my fevers are from the hernia mesh instead of just my bad ankle (marrow leaking).When I had the test done two years ago, it showed some activity around my abdomen, but the hot spot was my ankle. This time I will be keeping off my feet as much as possible in the weeks leading up to the exam, to make certain any problem in the abdomen can be clearly seen. I would be off my feet all the time everyday under doctor's advice, but our home is far from fully accessible. Maybe someday, eh?

The Indium scan is a fascinating thing. They take some blood, extract the white blood cells, and send them to a lab to be 'labeled' with radioactive Indium before putting them back in. The next day, after the white blood cells have had time to gather around any place that needs their warrior capabilities, the patient is scanned and the irradiated leukocytes (white blood cells) show up any problem areas.

It would be more fascinating if it wasn't me. The results will determine whether or not the my mesh needs to be removed. NOT looking forward to that possibility. If it gets rid of the fevers, though, it is probably the best choice. I don't have a spleen, so I am considered to have a 'compromised immune system' If the mesh HAS been causing infections all this time, I've been dodging some pretty big bullets.I hate waiting and wondering, soI am glad Doc Farmer moved so quickly on my behalf. She has my scan scheduled for Dec. 5th and 6th. Very fast work in the medical world!

Now for the gratuitous color (from my former quilting days), to cheer up a grey Michigan week:

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The iridium scan sounds fascinating! I hope you get to the bottom of it.

That top quilt on the pics is my absolute favorite small quilt of mine or anyone's for that matter. I really love what you did with the threads and fabrics. If I could think of something that means "Diana" to me, it's that top piece. I know you did it quite awhile ago, but it is still AMAZING.

The others are wonderful too, of course. You are SO gifted with fabric!!! Please don't say you are done quilting :(